THE EMPIRE'S JIJNIOR PARTNER. By-C. A. Wilson. (Williams and Norgate,
Auckland : Wilsqn Bros. Os.) Mr. Wilion is -a New Zealander born and bred; and enthusiastic for his native islands. That is good enough reason for commending his book to other Britons, but it tends to fall between two stools. It contains a good deal of history and yet has hardly the dignity of style or .form that should go with a history ; and it has other matter, geography, botany, and zoology, all slightly treated. Yet it does not make the perfect guide book. For one thing it lacks what is indis- pensable to a good guide book-a map. In any case, a book like this, which mentions scores of names of places little known to readers outside; needs a map ' • nor is there any index. best st part is concerned with the Maoris, their origin, those miserable wars, and their prospects, which are now so hopeful. The missionaries doWn to Bishop Selwyn are duly praised for their devotion and civilizing success. The Governors and early leaders-Wakefield, Sir George Grey, Hobson, the little-understood de Thierry and others are variously judged on the parts they took in building up the colony. The judgments are brief and rather superficial, naturally,' but are fair according to accepted histo7. The most novel part is the survey' of the " possessions ' of the Dominion, whose-responsibilities have been increased since the War by Western Samoa under the mandate and Nauru Island, but before the War they stretched from the tropics to the antarctic continent.
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